Candidate's statement replying to the EC's questions- Africa

[Molefi Mafereka Ndlovu]

Warm greetings fellow NCUC members, please accept this late submission (I had  a server connection problem in the past week). Apologies to the chairperson and her EC for the delay. this is a response to the questions related to my candidacy to serve the NCUC-EC-A. I realize that there are three nominees for the Africa region and feel each one competent and deserving. Being very new in the NCUC community i think the membership has a clearer sense of the kind of person they are seeking to fill this seat. I am happy to have been nominated and will be keen to work with any one of the other African region nominees to amplify the African voice within the NCUC community henceforth.

Below are my responses to the nominee questionnaire sent to us recently, kindly consider these responses as my nominee statement to serve as a rep for Africa region on the NCUC EC

1. Why do you want to serve on the EC?

I have been involved in various community development initiatives in South Africa and Southern Africa, for the past ten years, as a youth activist.  using community media as a tool to facilitate participation by marginal groups, especially (Black) African youths who face challenges because of systematic impoverishment and a lack of opportunities. The numerous advances in Information Communication Technologies have opened up new opportunities for increasing number of young people to connect and access more sources of information and share their experiences with wider circles of active audiences beyond their immediate surroundings. Though the African continent in general remains a few paces behind countries of the global North (especially infrastructure,skills and facilities), there is no denying that the growth in ICT and direct connectivity has had some impact over shifting paradigms of the representation of African people on the world scale. While commercial interests dominate much of African on-line content; civil society with social/communal interests remains a pivotal player in this wider role of democratizing the on-line realm concerned with identity,production of knowledge, plurality of values/ world views and multi-cultural existence. I am among a steadily growing community of practitioners here in Africa, who believe that this trend can be further encouraged by doing more work to include the diversity  African community voices, perspectives and languages in on-line content. I was introduced to the work of NCUC by two people from whom i have learned a lot and whom i regard highly in the field of community media, advocacy and activist pedagogy. I formerly became a member of the Non Commercial Users Constituency at the beginning of 2012, and felt immediately  at home in this constituency because of the number of like minded folks have come across through their inputs & perspectives on, for example the ongoing discussion on New Generic Top Level Domains discussion and its implications for the freedom of expression, or the question of new constituency groups for cyber-cafes, all of which have implications for Africa and much of the developing regions. I think my contribution to the EC would be to bring new energy to the group and contribute to the needed outreach efforts to new members and regions  within Africa and the wider Diaspora. I think being able to do more hands on tasks in NCUC would also contribute to improving the capacities within  African Civil society formations grappling with the new frontiers presented by the internet; especially in light of the upcoming ICANN meeting in my home town of Durban KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa in mid 2013. 

2. Provide a brief biography of recent experience, associations, and affiliations relevant to serving on the Executive Committee. Describe the relevance of your personal and professional experience to serve on the NCUC Executive Committee, and identify any conflicts of interests you might have.

I am a member of the NCUC through nomination by my organisation, the Centre for Civil Society (CCS) which is a Southern African research institute based at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in the School of Built Environment and Development Studies. I have been based at the CCS for the past six years wherein my responsibilities were community outreach. In this capacity i have worked with a number of community based organisations (CBO's) on developing online platforms to assist the development programs of these organisations, these includes a project we call Durban Sings! a participatory audio oral history project working with young peoples from ten urban and rural communities on the peripheries of the Durban metropolitan Area the archive from this three year project is available onlinon-line www.durbansings.wordpress.com. This project generated so much interest within participating  community organizations as well as across the country as more practitioners noted the absence of African content in African languages online,b) much as the interest was high, most participants (myself included) noted that internet facilities remain largely inaccessible to many communities living on the peripheries of large cities, this mad it difficult and very expensive to have meaningful contribution on online platforms outside of resourced institutions such as in our case the University of KwaZulu-Natal c) even while generating the audio content we were met the challenge of online storage facility for such files as video and audio media, where we ended up using a USA based public archiving platform called Archive.com (www.archive.com)- by every standard an excellent facility and model to be emulated and d) the rapid improvements in mobile phones (Smart phones) globally in the past five years has meant that more people have the potential to use online interfaces  to link up to platforms such as social networks etc, then why not also use this advance to increase the production of knowledge beyond the traditional academy and into the social realms.

The above learning has fueled our collective interest in taking forward the work we have started  thus far, to the extent that we have all decided to put energy in building the online infrastructure such as an open online archiving facility in South Africa, which we call Qwasha! an isiZulu word meaning "become awake". A work in progress, the design elements have been completed and are online here: www.qwasha.org.za the real work is how to organise the contributions so as to be as open and inclusive as possible whilst  rigorous and informative at the same time. This is where i believe being more  involved in the NCUC could open possibilities for further and shared learning from people who have a passion for the extension and enjoyment of internet to the numerically  largest global  constituency: non commercial users across the Northern and Southern hemisphere. 

For the past ten years i have been a member of Indymedia network and participated extenssively in the World Social Forum processes. The area of work i have been involved in has also built up a steady network of many civil society formations in Southern Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, DRC Congo, Nigeria and Senegal. i have attained a bachelor's degree in community development and comparative literature and many years practical work experience, in 2013 i intend taking a masters' classes for a degree in development studies. i hope to bring to the NUCUC a new voice and an enthusiastic energy and to put my skills to use especially regarding more African stake-holder participation in the constituency as well as ICANN community in general.  I believe ICANN particularly the constituency would be an important learning space to translate social activist pedagogies practicable policy inputs that would facilitate growth and meaningful change at the level of collective governance for non commercial ends.

3. The EC performs several functional responsibilities for the Constituency. What level of time commitment can you bring to your EC role on a weekly and overall basis? Describe any concerns or limitations on your ability to attend online meetings of the Executive Committee and ICANN Meetings in person.

In recent weeks i have had the misfortune of my e-mail box being hacked and therefore losing out on some key e-mail list discussions this problem has happily been resolved, internet access in South Africa is relatively good and being at the university means i can have relaible connection most days, the timing of NCUC meetings has been during working hours and participation is very good, in the past i have been attending some meetings mostly as a listener as i was getting orientated with issues at hand. Active responsibilities and tasks will help me become more hands on and less of a spectator, i have the time to do most tasks and will be available to attend online meetings and look forward to attend ICANN meetings in person some day.

4. Communication with the membership is critical. How would you keep members apprised of your EC-related activities?

From what i have gathered thus far; the current mailing list seems to be the most effective and immediate means of communication for constituent members; it seems to me that  there maybe a need to create other kinds of spaces more regional dialogue within each of the ICANN/NCUC regions; this is especially important for the Africa region as more and more groups become aware of the work of ICANN. One way to try out would be to introduce regular dialogue sessions within regional blocks that could brief fellow members of significant matters arising in countries/states and the regional rep to appraise the membership and solicit input from discussants on matters affecting the entire constituency, this may require more time and a greater organisation but this would assist to draw out even 'silent' members to share and engage on constituent issues on a regular basis.
 
5. How do you foresee NCUC’s function, scale, or role changing in the future? What areas of ICANN policy, if any, need more attention and why? Be concise (200 words maximum).

In my opinion, the NCUC will gradually occupy a critical position in the area of internet governance globally. The phenominal changes that have occured in the past few years, especially in the area of social media and social change has meant that the internet is fast becoming the new fronteir through which consensus and contention will play itself out. This means that the policy wing of internet governance is increasingly expected to be at the cutting edge in the waves of change taking shape. I am most impressed by the strong ethical commitment shown by the entire membership of the NCUC to defend and advance the non commercial interests of a growing number of  users of the internet; this in light of growing pressure to commodify all elements of human social life. Non commercial ends are important for the goal of attaining social justice and securing human rights to create, access, express and share their experiences to a globally connected community, this is especially important for the African continent and the global South in general.

While NCUC is a very small part of the larger ICANN community, much of its roles,scale and functions are codified within this framework; i believe there is a room for creative re-energizing of the NCUC especially its potential for championing outreach efforts and drawing in more non-commercial user membership base from the South, this would provide the constituency more dynamism and relevance especially within the education, community, design and innovation and well as policy fraternities emerging out of post-conflict social reconstruction efforts taking shape in the South. Yet at the same time consolidating and popularizing milestones achieved thus far by the dynamic group of NCUC members.


M.M. Ndlovu
Researcher: Centre for Civil Society
University of KwaZulu Natal
Durban
+27 31 260 1506/3578
ccs.ukzn.ac.za
www.qwasha.org.za
www.durbansings.wordpress.com